Publishing Billionaire Donald Newhouse Gives $20 Million to Combat Dementia

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration

Donald Newhouse gave $20 million to establish the unrestricted Donald and Susan Newhouse Fund, which will be used to expand the organization’s research, education, awareness, advocacy efforts, and care and support programs for patients suffering with frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia usually seen in people under 60 that is different from Alzheimer’s disease.

Newhouse is a billionaire who owns Advance Publications, a media company founded in 1922 by his father, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr., and whose holdings include Condé Nast, the publisher of blue-chip magazines such as the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and a number of newspapers throughout the country. His wife, Susan, served as chairman of the Fresh Air Fund, a children’s charity, for 24 years. She died in 2015.

“My wife, Sue, and my brother, Si, suffered from dementias which were variants of frontotemporal degeneration,” said Newhouse in a news release. “As my Suzy would have wanted, I have committed myself to do what I can, so that others do not suffer as she did.”

National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones donated $20 million to help pay for the construction of the museum’s building in Arlington, Tex., which is scheduled to open in 2024.

Jones has owned the professional football team since 1989. He also serves as the team’s president and general manager, and he derives much of his nearly $9 billion personal fortune from his stake in the Cowboys, one of the most valuable sports teams in the country. Earlier in his career, he founded Jones Oil and Land Lease, an Arkansas oil- and gas-exploration company. He is also a controlling shareholder in Comstock Resources, a publicly traded oil and gas company in Texas.

Jones’s daughter, Charlotte Jones, who is executive vice president and chief brand officer for the Cowboys, serves as chairman of the museum’s Board of Directors. The National Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for valor in combat and has been awarded since 1863.

Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Steven and Alexandra Cohen gave $16 million through their foundation to create the Cohen Center for Health and Recovery from Tick-Borne Diseases, which will provide specialized care for patients with Lyme disease and other illnesses carried by ticks.

The money will also pay for a national clinical-trials network focused on identifying more effective treatments for patients with tick-borne diseases. Steven Cohen founded SAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund in Stamford, Conn., that faced multiple fraud charges in 2013. It was later renamed Point72 Asset Management.

Grand Rapids Community College Foundation

Robert Richmond left $10 million to make higher education accessible to people who live in West Michigan.

Richmond co-founded with his wife, Lois, a Rockford, Mich., plastics manufacturer called B&L Plastics, and later B&L Development, a real-estate development company. They retired to Rio Verde, Ariz., and he died in 2019.

Richmond was not an alumnus of the college, but he and his wife frequently hired interns from the community college and saw how attending community college could help people advance in their education or careers.

Intermountain Healthcare

Crystal Maggelet donated $10 million to back an effort to create a health system for children that will bring together specialized pediatric caregivers from multiple Intermountain facilities and Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital’s pediatric partners at University of Utah Health. It will serve children in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Alaska.

Maggelet is chairman and CEO of FJ Management Inc., an Ogden, Utah, company that operates convenience stores, oil and refining businesses, and banking and insurance companies. She also founded with her husband, Chuck Maggelet, MacCall Management, a hotel development and management company in Salt Lake City.

University of Iowa Athletics

Will and Renee Moon gave $10 million to endow the football program; establish the Will and Renee Moon Excellence Fund, which will provide unrestricted support for athletics programs; and renovate Kinnick Stadium’s north end-zone seating and concourse area.

Will Moon co-owns, with his two sisters, Iowa 80 Group, a Walcott, Iowa, company that operates truck stops throughout the country. Renee Moon is a dentist in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The couple are alumni of the university, earning their degrees in the 1980s.

Southern Illinois College

Col. William Hise left more than $5 million, the bulk of his estate. Officials at the community college said Hise placed some “key restrictions” on how the money could be used, but they did not provide details about the restrictions.

Hise was a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who served as vice president of TechDyn Systems Corporation, an engineering and telecommunications company, in the 1990s. Hise died in February at 94.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.